Over the past week and a half we have been gradually unveiling our top 100 songs from the last ten years of Eurovision (2007-2016). Now that all has been revealed, here is the full countdown from number 100 to number one!Continue reading

Azerbaijan possibly have the best Eurovision track record ever. They’ve qualified for the final every time they have competed since their debut in 2008, they won in 2011 with Ell and Niki’s ‘Running Scared’ and have a total of six top ten finishes in eight attempts. Their worst result to date was in 2014 when Dilara Kazimova came 22nd with ‘Start a Fire’. What is the secret of their success and what have they in store for us in 2016?

If I were to ask you: which country is the most successful Eurovision nation? Your immediate response may be Ireland. You may say- surely they’ve won it the most, so therefore they’re the most successful? The big names that immediately come to mind are Johnny Logan, Linda Martin, Eimear Quinn and Dana. While it’s true that Ireland have had their fair share of Eurovision success, they have also had a shocking amount of non-qualifiers, and in the past twenty years haven’t really come close to their back to back successful run in the 1990s.

Hot on their heels you may say is Sweden with six wins and all quite recently. Big Swedish wins include Abba, Loreen and of course last year saw Mans Zelmerlow bring the contest back to Stockholm. However again there has been some slip ups from the Swedes over the years.

Similarly some nations haven’t ever won Eurovision, but have had many successful attempts with a number of consistent top ten results. Countries that may have only competed a few times, but have given it all the gusto they could muster, resulting in them constantly finishing on the left of the leader board in the final.

Other countries like the UK have a hefty number of second places, but may not be the equal of Ireland’s seven wins. So the question arises: how do we rank these efforts fairly? You may be tempted to cry: It’s too complicated! There’s so much history! Well, I’ve decided to attempt it and here is how…Continue reading

For the past two weeks we have been delving into all things Azerbaijan. We have scrutinized all their eight entries, putting them all under the microscope. We have awarded them points over a number of categories including finishing position, song, lyrics, performance, legacy and have even asked you to weigh in by voting for your favourite in our poll. Well that’s all over now and it’s time to reveal the winner of the overall contest. And the winner is…

We have been awarding the past Azeri Eurovision entries points based on a number of different criteria over the last week and a bit. Today we look at their legacy. What have they done since representing their country at the world’s biggest music competition. Read on to see what they’ve been up to. Some of them may surprise you. Which of them for instance has collaborated with Shaggy and Sean Paul?Continue reading

Just three more rounds to go in this competition to assess which of the Azerbaijan Eurovision entries is the best. We have already taken a look at the lyrics, the live performance, the music video, the finishing place and now we turn our attention to the song itself before looking tomorrow at the legacy of each act and tallying your votes from our poll on Sunday. Read on to find out how we ranked each song, see how that alters the overall table and to vote in the poll.

The lyrics of a song are something that can contribute to its success and in Eurovision this is no exception. It has been well documented that Eurovision songs have some of the most bizarre, quirky and altogether strange lyrics of all. Take for instance the Belarussian entry from 2014 that saw a grown man sing about his love of cheesecakes, or the German entry from 1979 that saw a whole song dedicated to Genghis Khan. These are only a few examples from the past 60 years. Despite a reputation for gimmicky songs like the ones just mentioned, Eurovision also gives us some great lyrics that could stand the test of time outside of the contest. One only has to think of the winners from the last few years: Loreen, Lena, Conchita and this year’s winner Mans Zelmerlow who have dominated the European charts with their great songs. Classic songs as well such as ABBA’s ‘Waterloo’, LuLu’s ‘Boom Bang a Bang’ and Celine Dion’s ‘Ne Partez Pas Sans Moi’ owe their success to their clever lyrics. Now and again (despite rules to the contrary) we get some songs whose lyrics spark a bit of political controversy. Recently there has been the subsequently banned Georgian entry from 2009 which proclaimed that ‘We Don’t Wanna Put In’ directed at the Russian leader and even more recently than that we had ‘Don’t Deny’ from Armenian supergroup Genealogy who had to alter the song’s title for allusions to the denial of the Armenian genocide in 1915. In this article we will take a look at the Azerbaijani songs from the last eight years, picking out the best lyric from each song and awarding them points ranging from 12 to 3 (Eurovision style) on that basis.